Well, even though it was very cold for East Texas and we had some family functions going on, I did spend some time in the shop this weekend. Not much time, but got my goal accomplished.
I spent a few minutes labeling my partial harness to see what it was really missing. More than I thought, so I moved on to another part of this project.
While trying to decide on which rear end to use, I was also looking at what wheels I had and what my options are to try to make two decisions at once. After looking at my options and discussing with my boys, I decided to swap in a ford 8.8 out of an Explorer (Mercury Mountaineer actually). Part of the reason was that it is 59 3/8" wide WMS to WMS, giving me a little bit narrow rear. The other is that Korbin was not going to get to using it before LST, so we made a deal for me to replace it after LST. Just have to wait for a 1/2 off day, or a All You Can Carry day at the pick a part. I am holding off on letting you guys know what my wheel selection is until after I get the rear end sorted out...
This is the rear as we pulled it out of the Mountaineer (minus the rotors and calipers):
Disc Brakes with a mechanical parking brake, 3.73 gears and a limited slip carrier. Not a bad score for $85 out the door.
I needed to get the truck up a bit higher and move my stands to a better spot to make working on the mock up easier. By the end of my shop time, I was in and somewhat centered. I need to make some saddles for it and get it centered up, but I know what is needed and looks like it will work. Only issue I have is that the pinion is not centered on this rear, but I have a couple of ways to get around that issue.
I have a new workout routine I do with my wife on Mondays and Thursdays now, so shop time tonight will be after that class and will be limited tonight.
46 more days...